United Nations/UNHCR chief Gillian Triggs has said to ANP on Thursday that the Netherlands “only receives tiny numbers of refugees receives”, that the Netherlands “really needs to start looking at migration differently” and “can do much more.”
Not only does she think the Netherlands can “accommodate more asylum seekers,” but also that the Netherlands “needs to do more when it comes to racist thinking that undermines support for refugee reception.”
According to Triggs, “a racial element” is one of the reasons that the Netherlands receives “tiny numbers of refugees.”
Triggs:
“UNHCR is concerned that there is a racial element at play here, fueled by the false claim that refugees are to blame for housing shortages.”
Friday, Eric van der Burg (VVD) responded to this by saying he “emphatically disagrees” with Triggs;
“With the reception of 100,000 Ukrainians combined with the reception of 70,000 asylum seekers, you see that it squeaks and creaks in the Netherlands. Then we should not choose to accommodate even more people. We really need to get migration under control and a better distribution across the European Union.
“Yes, Turkey is hosting a lot of refugees, but Turkey is Syria’s neighbor, so it is also right that they are hosting a lot of Syrians. We as Europe are Ukraine’s neighbors, so we as the EU take in a lot of Ukrainians. And that’s the way it should be as far as I’m concerned.”
Triggs also made comments Thursday about Dutch asylum boats, which she called “a shocking sight.” She chalked this up to “austere reception” which she said, along with “more border control and stricter immigration rules” do not help for “a different refugee policy.”
